by Jason Brant
The blood rushing to my head made the already tight hat feel even more constricting, so I threw it on the closest bed. When Sammy saw the damage on my face she stopped giggling.
"Oh my God, you poor man!"
"It looks worse than it is."
"It looks like you were hit by a car," Nami said.
"Never mind then, Nora, it looks exactly like it feels. But I was hit by a shovel, actually. Twice."
"Oh, we saw it. If the video wasn't classified, I would have uploaded it to YouTube by now."
Sammy walked up and put her hands on either side of my face, inspecting my bruises. I wondered if it was too early to propose.
"Ash, what are we doing here? We need to run away from this madness," she said as she looked into my eyes.
"How did you get away from the police? We watched them arrest you," Nami said.
"I woke up in Prince George's Hospital, detained in a bed. I had to MacGyver my handcuffs and then trick a guard into the room." I looked down at my clothing, "Unfortunately, he wasn't quite my size."
A half empty pizza box on one of the beds caught my attention. I grabbed it and sat down beside Nami at the bistro table.
"The last thing I remember was a shovel flying at my face; then I woke up in the hospital. What did I miss?" I asked as I crammed a slice into my mouth.
Nami's fingers flew across the keyboard. "Here's the sat feed, starting right after you got fucked up by an old man and a lady who drove to the cemetery in a minivan. A woman with four kids. Who's forty-six. Probably starting menopause. Weighs one hundred pounds less than you."
I showed her the chewed up pizza in my mouth as she angled the screen so I could see it. The video started with the little kids stomping on my back. The mom raised the shovel above her head, the edge of the blade pointing down. That blow probably would have killed me. Everyone froze in place at the same time for several seconds, before looking around in bewilderment. Soccer Mom dropped the shovel and bent down to check on me.
The police and a ton of paramedics came a few minutes later. They obviously recognized me because they slapped the handcuffs on before throwing me in the back of an ambulance and driving off. The rest of the paramedics went to work on the flattened government agents.
"What are they saying about the insanity at the cemetery? No way they could cover that up."
"They're calling it a terrorist attack. It doesn't look like they're releasing too many details yet. No mention of you. The major networks are already blaming Iran for causing the incident. People are getting very pissed off. President Thomas is giving a massive speech in front of the Washington Monument in a little bit. They're expecting a huge turnout, too. Everyone thinks he's going to announce we're invading Iran. It looks like he's finally going to be able to start his war."
I found myself wondering, again, how I managed to go from watching television to being at ground zero of a possible war.
"What happened with Murdock?" I asked between bites.
"Apparently he anticipated the satellite surveillance. We lost him when he ran into a recreation center a block away. His disguise was found in a hallway. We think he forced a volunteer to drive him further into the city, as she has no memory of leaving the rec center," Nami said without looking up from her laptop.
Grabbing another piece, I leaned back in my chair and looked at her for a full ten seconds while I chewed.
"That doesn't make any sense. If the goal was to take Murdock out, why not just use a sniper? Sending in those agents was a suicide mission. And with all the crazy technology and resources at Smith's disposal, how could he lose one man after he ran into a rec center?"
Nami stopped typing and looked up at me. "He did say that Murdock wiped out his entire organization. Maybe he doesn't have much to work with?"
"He managed to get you transferred over from the NSA in less than a day and give you access to an intelligence satellite. How did he get so many people in the assault at the cemetery?"
Sammy took a seat on the bed by me. "I've got it! We need to go into business together!"
"Uh, what?" I asked.
"You can read minds, right? Well, my dad owns a restaurant!"
Nami and I looked at each other, wondering what she was talking about.
"And?" I finally asked.
"I know how to run a business! My dad taught me. You and I should open a palm reading shop together! You can read people's minds, and I'll run the business! We'll split the profits sixty/twenty."
So kind, so beautiful, so dumb. I decided to look at her boobs for awhile, rather than instigate the conversation anymore. Nami decided to keep the ball rolling.
"Sixty/twenty?"
"Sorry, I meant sixty/thirty."
Nami looked back and forth from Sammy to me in disbelief.
"Sixty/thirty?"
"Well, what is it then?" Sammy asked.
Nami put her face in her hands and shook it back and forth.
I decided to continue as if that little chat didn't happen.
"Anyway, some of the information Smith gave us isn't adding up. When I got close to Murdock our minds formed some kind of weird bridge where we were able to communicate with each other mentally. He didn't seem to have any idea who I was. I mentioned him trying to kill us with a rocket and capture us using the police. Again, he didn't know what I was talking about. I couldn't tell if he is just so crazy he didn't remember, or if he really was confused."
They both sat there staring at me while they thought through the ramifications of what I said.
"Didn't Smith say that they think Murdock could control people up to three hundred feet away?" Sammy asked.
"Weren't you hiding in the bathroom when he said that?"
"That door might as well be made of cardboard. I could still hear everything. Isn't that what he said? Three hundred feet?"
"Yeah, that's why those people at the funeral didn't kill me; he ran out of range."
"So, when he releases someone, they stop what he was forcing them to do, right? They don't keep going?"
Smith had conveniently left that part out. She was onto something. Maybe there was some hope for her after all.
"I think so. When he let go of Carol Brady – uh, the mom – during the gun fight she had no idea what was going on."
Nami whistled as she sat back in her chair. "So he couldn't have been controlling the men who blew up your apartment. If he had been close enough to manipulate them, you would have felt his presence."
"Maybe. I was drugged out my skull at the time."
"He couldn't have sent the police after us either," Sammy said.
I should have seen this earlier. Everything happened so fast that I never had a chance to sit down and analyze everything I had been told. If Murdock didn't even know who I was, let alone try and kill me, why was Smith convinced it was him? Or did Smith lie about everything from the beginning?
"So who blew up our building?" Sammy asked.
"If I had to guess, I'd say Smith."
Chapter 14
They both looked at me in shock.
"He managed to save us in the nick of time, claiming Murdock sent those men to kill us. He must have known that wasn't possible, so he lied about it. They also fed us way too much classified information. Even though the circumstances are extreme, there was no reason to tell us so much."
"You think everything he told us was pulled out of his ass?" Nami asked.
"Not all of it. Obviously he used telepaths in some kind of intelligence program. He knew about my abilities and background. Murdock did kill a senator and a bunch of government agents. Like any good con man, Smith mixed a lot of truth and lies together. The hard part is deciphering what's true or not."
Sammy put her fingers to her temples, trying to concentrate. "Why involve you at all then? Why would he shoot missiles into our place?"
That was the million dollar question. My hatred of our government wasn’t a secret to anyone that I served with. Because Smith had done a lot of
digging on me, he knew I was a telepath after all – then he must have known there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell I would have willingly joined any government program.
"Maybe he really did need me to help him find Murdock. The guy is a master of disguise and he can get people to do anything he wants. If all the other telepaths working for Smith were dead, then he would need me. Since their files on me are so detailed he knew that I wouldn't have volunteered to help. Maybe he orchestrated this so I wouldn't have a choice."
Nami didn't look like she bought it.
"You think he acted like he saved you so that you would help him? You think he set up the warrants for your arrest as well? Holy ridiculous conspiracy theory, Batman."
It did make me sound like a nut. Nothing else seemed to fit though.
"If Murdock doesn't even know who I am, and it wasn't Smith, then who?"
"Why get the police after us? Do you think he set us up so that we couldn't call them after he kidnapped us?" Sammy asked.
"Maybe? It does seem like a good way to limit our options."
"And you’re saying that after going to all that trouble to get your help, he let Murdock escape from the cemetery intentionally?"
"If Smith's entire plan consisted of you keeping an eye on him from a satellite and sending a team of armed men to their doom, then he's incompetent. That doesn't seem likely to me."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to wrap our heads around everything.
"God damn it, you might be right," Nami said. "Before Smith left us here, he told me to make sure that you knew the police were after you. He was very adamant that you not run away. If what you're saying is true, then I think we're about to get kicked in the fart box."
I had no idea people actually talked like that.
"What are you talking about, Natalie?"
"After your arrest, Smith said he was sending someone over to relieve me. That doesn't sound so good all of a sudden."
"I think we should get out of here," I said. "Did he issue you that computer or did you bring it with you?
"Smith gave it to me."
"Leave it here; your cell phone too. Don't take anything they could track us with."
"Thank God. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life in this stupid room," Sammy said.
Nami's feet didn't touch the floor while she sat in the chair, so she had to hop down. She pulled a Sailor Moon backpack out from under the table and began to root through it.
"I just bought this damn thing too," she said as she threw her phone on the bed. "Now I'm going to lose all my Angry Birds progress."
"Nice bag. Did your mom buy it for your first day of school?"
After fumbling with the strap on the gun holster around my waist, I pulled the pistol free. I hoped we could get clear of the hotel before someone from the goon squad showed up, but I wanted to be prepared just in case.
"You know what? I don't care how much bigger you—" Nami started to say as I reached for the door knob.
When I opened the door, Chuck was standing on the other side.
Chapter 15
He made a play for his shoulder holster. If the gun hadn't been in my hand already we would have all been dead. His speed was unbelievable. By the time I had my pistol pointed at his chest he had managed to remove a Desert Eagle .50 cal. from the inside of his jacket. It was best described as a hand cannon.
"Drop it. Now. You aren't that fast."
Surprisingly he did. The weight of it caused a loud thud as it hit the dirty carpet. His eyes never left mine.
"Didn't expect to see me, did you? Kick it over to Neena," I said.
After Nami put the gun in her kiddy sized backpack, I motioned for Chuck to back out of the room.
"We're taking the stairs down. You guys go ahead of us. Chuck Norris and I are going to be right behind you."
Slowly we walked down the hallway toward the stairwell, my gun pressed against his back. Behind us, at the end of the hall, the elevator dinged as it passed our floor. A dirty used fork sat on the floor outside a room on our right. As Chuck and I walked under the dim exit sign and into the stairwell, I could see Sammy and Nami disappear under the overhang of the steps, almost a floor beneath us already.
Now was my chance to find out the truth. Letting my mental defenses down, I latched onto his mind, sifting through his memories. What I saw proved worse than anything I could have imagined.
"You craz—"
Chuck became a blur as he spun around and grabbed my wrist. He slammed my hand on the railing hard enough to make me drop the gun down the stairwell. Twisting my arm with his left hand, he punched me in the chest with his right.
The pain was immense as I fell back through the door and into the hallway. The carpet didn't provide much padding as my ass landed on the floor. The buttons on my shirt, already stretched to their limit, burst open. Stumbling up, I walked backward on the balls of my feet as Chuck followed.
Sammy and Nami started calling my name from the bottom of the stairs.
"Run! Don't come back up here!" I yelled as loud as my aching chest would allow.
The elevator was behind me, but on a different floor. The stairs were beyond him. I had no choice but to stand my ground. Unfortunately, I couldn't win this fight if he was in a wheelchair and I had a chainsaw. Judging by the smirk on his face, he knew it too. He was too advanced of a fighter for me to use my ability on him to predict his movements. Highly trained fighters react on instinct; they don't follow a predetermined set of moves.
He feinted forward, and then threw a right cross that flew past my face as I moved sideways, into a left hook. My equilibrium went to hell as I staggered into a door with a do not disturb sign hanging from the knob.
"Read the sign asshole!" a male voice yelled from within.
Chuck threw a side kick at my face which I barely managed to avoid. The impact on the door caused it to splinter and bow inward.
"Jesus!" the man in the room cried. The damage to his door must have persuaded him inside. "I'm calling the cops!"
Wary of Chuck's power, I resumed backpedaling toward the elevator.
As we squared off again I figured a good offense might be the best defense. Throwing a jab-cross-hook combination, the best I've got, had me swinging at air. Faster than I could react he moved to my right, punching me in the temple. He followed that with a spinning back kick that nailed me in the stomach. It felt like someone hit me with a sledgehammer.
I tried not to focus on the fact that I just ate a spinning back kick thrown by a Chuck Norris lookalike.
My limited boxing training didn't extend to defending kicks. His next blasted my left knee, crumpling me to the floor again. The leg began to stiffen at once. I started crab walking away from him, my limb dragging on the floor behind me. My left hand fell upon something small, cold, and metal – the fork I had seen earlier. It wasn't a chainsaw but it would have to do.
With a smile, he lifted his foot waist high and stomped on the same knee.
A scream escaped me as my frantic hands grabbed at the damaged joint, the agony causing my vision to blur. Leaning over, he grabbed both sides of my ripped uniform and pulled me up until we were face to face.
"No smartass remarks, tough guy? Nothing funny to say?"
"Let me show you what I think of your sissy kicks," I said with a bloody smile. Then I jammed the dirty fork in his neck.
Rearing back, he clutched at the utensil, his face not showing an ounce of pain.
If I didn't get some distance between the two of us, he was going to break every bone in my body. Throughout the years I'd become fond of my bones, so that didn't seem like a good option.
Pushing myself up on my good leg, I hobbled in the direction of the elevator. Chancing a peek over my shoulder, I saw him pull the fork out and throw it against the wall. I must have missed his carotid artery as the blood wasn't flowing as I'd hoped.
"You may want to swab that with alcohol; I wasn't able to sterilize it first," I
called back as blood spilled down my chin.
Ten feet from the elevator, I heard the ding signifying it stopped on our floor. Fighting through the stiffness in my knee, I continued forward as the doors opened. A portly man stood in the corner, his mouth dropping open when he saw me.
"Officer, are you all right?"
Chuck tackled me from behind, driving us into the elevator. My face smashed into the railing midway up the wall. Blood poured into my mouth as my teeth dug into my cheek. Chuck grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my forehead into the control panel, my nose mangling on the lobby button. I fought against unconsciousness as my body slid into a seated position.
While the doors to the elevator closed, the chubby man grabbed Chuck's shoulders, trying to pull him off me. I wanted to warn him against it, but my mouth couldn't form the words. The help was short-lived, as he took a ridge hand chop to his throat. Falling into the back corner opposite of me, his huge eyes rolled around wildly as he clawed at his busted throat.
When Chuck turned back to me I connected with an Ash Benson Special Delivery. A slight grimace was all the reaction he gave me.
"What are you, a eunuch?" I slurred as I tried to spit the taste of copper from my mouth.
The blows started hammering down at a furious rate. Some connected with the top of my head and forearms as I tried to protect myself; others crunched my eyes and nose as I slumped to the floor. Blood streamed down my esophagus, making breathing difficult.
Chuck reached down and grabbed my throat with his right hand, isolating the rest of my air supply. He pulled his left hand back, preparing for a devastating punch.
Catching hold of his wrist with both hands, I pulled him forward while kicking my right leg over his shoulder and encircling my knee around his head and arm. Wrapping my left knee over my right ankle, I completed a triangle choke. Despite the misery that was my knee I squeezed with all that I had, cutting off the blood supply to his brain.
